444 pages ; 24 cm

[In this book, the author] applies [an] array of learning and of judicious reasoning to his subject and does not fall short in dealing with its many, many complexities. [His] scathing critique of religious-based violence puts disturbing questions to the traditions that wish to preach "peace" as a central teaching.-Dust jacket

Includes bibliographical references (pages 383-423) and indexes

Premodern theories of violence -- Modern theories of violence -- Previous theories of religious violence -- Scarce resource theory and violence -- How religion creates scarce resources -- Judaism and the Hebrew Bible -- Academic defenses of violence in the Hebrew Bible -- Christianity and the New Testament -- Academic defenses of Christian violence -- Islam and the Qur'an -- Academic defenses of Islamic violence -- The NazI Holocaust -- Stalinism -- The nation-state and secular humanist violence -- A comparative ethics of violence -- Solutions -- Foreign policy implications

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